In a typical inbound contact center arrangement, customer service representatives handle a variety of incoming calls. For each new call that a single or multi-site set of call centers receives, decisions are made by call routing algorithms as to which site should handle a call, and then within the site, whether a call should be given to an available agent, or held in queue for an agent that is more likely to have the skills required to handle the call. An example of a prior art system which utilizes such algorithms is the Advocate System, marketed by Avaya Inc. of Basking Ridge, N.J.
In a typical outbound contact center, an effort is made to optimize performance of the agents by placing predictive dialing calls. A predictive dialing call is one that is placed in anticipation of an agent becoming free in the very near future. Should this prediction be incorrect, the called party answers the phone, hears no one on the other end, and hangs up. A potential customer, so treated, would be even less receptive to a subsequent call from an agent. For an outbound contact center, the decision of when to place a predictive dialing call is typically based on the expected remaining work time of all agents that might be able to handle the call about to be placed. It is in the best interests of both the outbound call center and the called party that this decision is made as accurately as possible.
One of the inputs to such predictive algorithms, either directly or via calculation, is the expected remaining work time of each agent. Today, this estimate is based on the average of all calls handled by the agent or by all agents. If the general type of call is known (due to the original number dialed by the customer, or selections made for routing using an interactive voice response (IVR) system, or information held in the customer record), the average can be computed for calls of a certain type. Considering types of calls in this manner improves the accuracy of the estimate by reducing the variance of the estimate.
Accordingly, in a typical current prior art systems, estimated remaining work time is calculated by determining the average call holding time for all calls of a class, and then subtracting the time an agent has spent on the call up to this point. It is well-known in the art that while such estimates can be fairly accurate when it entails a large call volume, as call volume decreases (e.g., based on time of day or day of week), predictors based on such estimates become far less accurate. In many instances, the actual length of the call will exceed the average call holding time, and thus the estimate will be zero or negative.
In all the above cases, the estimated remaining work time for a particular call to an agent is only a general estimate and does not take into account the current pace of the call in progress with the agent. A commonly owned, co-pending application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/675,729 filed Sep. 29, 2000 and incorporated herein by reference, utilizes the fact that a call between an agent and a customer passes through distinct phases. By estimating time durations of these separate phases and by determining what phase a call is currently on, a more accurate estimate is derived as to time for completion of a call.
The present invention improves upon the prior art estimation techniques above by using additional information to estimate where the customer and agent are in their conversation on the call. With this information, a more accurate estimate can be determined of the remaining time of the call. This estimate is then provided well known routing algorithms to improve the results of the routing function.